Leaving Bali for Japan

Today we are catching a 1:50 PM flight from Bali to Japan (via Singapore).  We woke before the alarm as is typical when we have to be up early, packed, had breakfast, the comfort food Mine Goring for both of us today, and left for the airport around 8:15 AM.  We both kind of worried about having that same crazy, fast driver we had for our drive here, but he sent another employee to drive us.  This made us very happy since the drive to the airport is going to take about 3 hours and now we will have a safer driver.

During the drive I was looking out the window watching the traffic and thought...this is not what I pictured Bali to be like.  I pictured a tropical island with pretty people doing yoga and getting daily massages.  I pictured beaches and palm trees, and villas constructed with wood.  I pictured green forests.  I did not picture this:

Don't get me wrong...everything that I pictured and you picture about Bali is there, it is just not on the surface.  You have to go behind the gates and wall and hotel entrences to see it.

Anyway...after 3 hours we arrived at the airport, said goodbye to Bali and went directly to security since we didn't have any bags to check.  As you know, we pack fairly light with everything we have fitting into backpacks (Click here if you want to see what we pack).

Check out the line for checking bags!  Just one of many reasons why we pack light.

Our first flight took us from Bali to Singapore where we had a 5.5 hour layover.  We considered going outside the airport to see a few things, but decided against it and having to go through immigration. Instead we found a luggage cart to put our backpacks on, and explored what is supposed to be one of the nicest airports in the world. 

I noticed a sign pointing to a swimming pool an it led to an actual rooftop swimming pool.  For about $25 USD you can use the pool, a fitness center, and showers while you wait for your flight.  There were also a few gardens, but this one pictured below was the nicest one.

With about 2.5 hours to go we headed to the food court for some dinner (me: Fishball Soup; Tim: Chicken and Rice) and found a comfortable place to sit for the last 1.5 hours when we were ready to go the gate.  I was quite surprised to see that we had to go though security all over again to get to the waiting area of our gate.  We had to empty our water bottles, our bags had to go though an x-ray machine, and we had to go though a metal detector.  I don't understand why, but OK.  

After a 7 hour flight, and 21 hours of travel, we arrived at Narita Airport in Tokyo actually on the next day at 6:15 AM.

Tonight we are staying at a hotel near the airport because we are meeting Peter and Susan tomorrow at the airport when they arrive from Bali.  We just missed the hotel shuttle, so had to wait about 1 hour for the next one to arrive.  We got on the 8:15 AM shuttle and arrived at the hotel at 8:45 AM.  Since checkout isn't until 2 PM, we found a comfortable place to hang out for a few hours.

The hotel also has a shuttle that takes you to the local mall that starts running at 11:15 AM.  We hopped on that bus and found our first conveyer-belt sushi restaurant.  I watched a few YouTube videos about this kind of restaurant, so I was familiar with ordering on a touchscreen and helping ourselves to the green tea that you made yourself at the counter.

We pushed some buttons and food appeared.  This is a few of the plates we ate.  The right photo is Uni (Sea Urchin)...one of my favorites and hard to get in the States.

This is the damage done at the end of the meal.  Oh Tim even had a Dewer's Scotch and Soda Water.  The cost was a bit expensive at ¥8,630 => $62 USD, but it was a great first experience having sushi in Japan.  I have other conveyer-belt sushi restaurants on our to-do list, so stay tuned.

After lunch we walked around the mall a bit.  There was actually a Cat Café in the mall that you can pay and play with cats.  I think is was about $6 USD per hour.  We might try a Cat Café before leaving Japan.  They are supposedly very popular and are everywhere.

After doing so research before traveling to Japan I learned that some Bath Houses do not allow you to use the bath if you have tattoos.  One article I read mentioned that there is a chain of stores called Don Quijote that sells tattoo coverup stickers for this purpose, so on my To Do List was to find a Don Quijote and buy these coverup stickers.  It just so happened that there was a Don Quijote next to the mall, so we walked there and successfully found what I was looking for.

Check out the size of this place.  It is a discount store that sells just about everything.  It is kind of like an Odd Lots or Ollie's Bargin Outlet..

We didn't have much time to look around since the next bus was in 20 minutes, but the next Don Quijote or as they call it here "Donki" we find we will spend more time in.

We caught the 1:40 PM bus back to the hotel and arrived just in time for check-in at 2 PM.  We got to our room, showered, and both fell asleep for a couple of hours.  We forced ourselves to wake up and stayed awake till about 10 PM until we both gave in and went to sleep.

Tomorrow we meet up with Peter and Susan and then head to Peter's son's house to stay there for a couple of nights to relax and do some trip planning.  Tim and I will be checking into an apartment in Tokyo on Sunday, 4 June and spend 1 week exploring Tokyo.  Until then...